News

When he’s not playing to sell-out crowds around the world he likes to ride a Bianchi road bike, but this week Robbie Williams took time out of his busy schedule to admire the Hornster – a custom bicycle...

A new chemical coating repels water, oil and dirt to such an extent that if you apply it to your mountain bike, clothes and shoes you will never again need to hose it down after a winter ride. Washing your bike after a muddy ride keeps it looking good and helps extend the life of your components, but it's a time-consuming ritual when all...

It doesn't matter how well you iron and fold a shirt, once it's spent an hour stuffed in the top of a rucksack it ends up looking like you've slept in it. The cheapest if not the most practical option is to buy an iron from Tesco value range for £5 and keep it at work, but a more sensible and less time-consuming approach is to invest in a...

Volkswagen has announced it is to sell its long-awaited XL-1 - a plug-in hybrid car with a combined fuel consumption rating of 261 mpg. The XL1 is the most aerodynamic production car ever (Cd 0.19) and with a weight of 795kg it can cruise at a constant 62 mph while using just 8.3 horsepower. In all-electric mode, the two-seater requires...

A growing appetite for nostalgic cycle rides is as much in evidence across the channel as it is here. While we have the Tweed Run, an event held in London each year that grows in popularity by the year and currently has to hold a lottery to allocate places, the French have the Anjou Velo Vintage bicycle festival. With an emphasis on...

In the current economic climate, there’s much talk of zombie businesses; debt-ridden companies that would die if they were not kept alive by banks eager to see their loans repaid. Given the amount of money spent on their promotion and funding, could the same be said of electric cars? Almost three years ago, at a time when Nissan was betting...

Once upon a time, in about 3600BC, someone pegged a set of wheels to a cart; 4,400 years later the tracks of Baghdad were finally paved with tar. But it wasn’t until 1817 that German Baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn put two wheels beneath a simple seat. Two hundred years later, the bicycle represents the most efficient ways to transform the...

With over 10 million bicycles on its roads, Beijing is one of the great cycling cities of the world, but its air is amongst the most polluted on the planet. British artist Matt Hope draws attention to the problem with his breathing bicycle, a piece of sculpture that filters dirty air courtesy of a collection of recycled components including...

At this time of the year, having a choice of transport can be the enemy of the cycle commuter; it’s understandable that the sight of frost or freezing fog on a dull winter’s morning can have even the enthusiastic cyclist reaching for the car keys or Oyster card, but it doesn't make the decision to leave the bike at home an easy one to make....

The Government is proposing to raise the speed limit for lorries on rural roads by up to 25 per cent. The national speed limit for heavy goods vehicles on single carriageway roads is currently 40mph, but there are moves to increase it to either 45mph or 50mph. Road haulage companies argue that the 40 mph speed limit causes: "unnecessary...